Years of Poems and Spirits

The Logis agent finally tracked down the owner of our first Paris apartment choice. He was on vacation so didn’t check email or vmail. How about that.

Anyway, almost got another apartment. Totally enchanted with some apts. in www.rentparis.com Almost went for it. Then when I tried to show Song the site, it was down. Down for two days. Then Logis called and said our first choice was available.

Athens is finalized too. So was Civita. It was an unbelieveable town. On top of a hill with one bridge out. I had a choice of visiting Ovieto. But I thought it was too much for one day visit.

Paris apts. are pain in the neck. Found http://paris.lodgis.com/ a very good site where you can search by your criteria, has good images and pretty detailed descriptions, including location ranking, etc.

Found two candidates. Faxed over applications to the agency, who’d take a cut from the booking. Then they would look for the owner, bridge up the two parties. Except I have been waiting and waiting. Called and left a message. B/c timezone differences, you have to pretty much wait for a day for reply.

I’m looking for others in the meanwhile. But not sure if Logis all of a sudden replied that they’ve already booked for me, I could end up owning two Paris apartments for 2 weeks.

Athens apartments going well. They all seem to speak/write English so well I was wondering they are expats over there. First one is www.viviun.com/AD-11538 Not sure it is the best I can find though.

Took some test shots with D70. Still not 100% happy. But Nikon can’t be an Emperor without cloth … everybody loves D70. What did I do wrong?

I snore too much. So Song insisted we find separate sleeping areas at long stays.

Hotels are pretty expensive if you want a suite or even two single rooms. Rick Steves and other tour books do have a lot hotels listed but none of them was cheap. At least by looking at the Internet price listings.

I wonder if you can get a better deal if just walk in and bargin. But it is our first trip so … no.

Anyways, Song thought about renting apartments. Since we will stay at least 4 nights or more in Rome, Florence, Athens and Paris, it was a brilliant idea.

Paris is abundant with apartments. Rome is a little harder to find at first. Then if you try the 2nd or 3rd pages from Google’s return, you will find more and better fits. Don’t try their “Sponsored links”. Not all are relevant.

We found and settled for two apts in Florence and Rome first, actually. The hosts/owners are pretty nice. Quick email reply and pretty clear rules and very good English too.

Nikon has been returned. UPS said Ritz received it. It was a pain to ship via UPS: since I insured the camera for $1500, I was told to hand the package in. I went to a UPS Store (formerly mailbox etc.) they said they couldn’t take it. I had to drive to their DC instead.